Roger Goodell could make more in five years than career earnings of Brady, Brees

CBS Sports | Dec 7

On Wednesday afternoon, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell inked a mammoth new contract that will keep him in charge of professional football through the year 2023. The deal will pay him $200 million (!) if he hits all his incentives and gets all his bonuses, which means that Goodell will make about $40 million annually moving forward.

It is worth noting that Goodell's contract will largely be tied to bonuses and incentives according to most reports, including this one from ESPN's Adam Schefter. In fact, he could "only" make in the single digits in millions (which is a fun thing to say) when it comes to his base compensation package.

Goodell's deal was set to expire after the 2018 season and there had been some serious public animosity about the new extension, with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones even threatening to sue the league if the compensation committee handed Goodell a new contract. Jones, presumably, remained non-thrilled by Goodell suspending Ezekiel Elliott for six games.

Maybe Goodell's contract is like a real NFL contract and a large chunk of the money in it is impossible to achieve. Let's not pretend he isn't going to end up making a nice chunk of change, however. Goodell reeled in $32 million in 2015, a six percent cut from his more than $34 million salary in 2014. If he's making a minimal amount as base compensation, it's at least possible that Jerry got his way to a degree.

Given that it's being reported like a fully-guaranteed contract (a.k.a. a free-agency deal), let's just go ahead and imagine that the commissioner does hit every single incentive in his contract. In that event, he would make around $40 million per year. And let's go ahead and compare it to player contracts. Don't tell me that it's not reasonable. It's perfectly reasonable. You're being unreasonable.

Compare Goodell's $200 million windfall over the five years of his new deal with the players to make the most money all-time in career earnings.